Business Tips and Resources

Dealing with negative online reviews: evidence-based strategies for speech pathologists

4 April 2016 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

Online review sites are fairly new in speech pathology and healthcare generally. Australian examples include Whitecoat and the NDIS-inspired Care Navigator.

Negative reviews hurt

Negative reviews on sites like these – or on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook – hurt. They may make us angry, anxious, embarrassed, sleepless – even sick. They can decimate team morale and confidence. They can tarnish reputations. They can lose us business. In extreme cases, they can even drive practices into the ground.

To compound the problem, speech pathologists are constrained by legal and ethical rules about advertising (e.g. testimonials) and client privacy. In practice, these limit our ability to respond to negative reviews, even if the reviews are exaggerated, incorrect, anonymous or even fabricated.

Review sites are here to stay

Consumers have a right to be informed about their treatment options. Despite all the risks of review sites for speech pathologists and other health professions, it’s clear regulators (and some self-regulatory bodies) in Australia see review sites as an important way of promoting consumer rights.

Speech Pathology Australia’s Advertising FAQs state that:

“advertising is not considered to include…comments made by a patient/consumer about a practice or a practitioner where the comments are made on a social media site or account or patient/consumer information sharing site or account which is not used to advertise a health service, and that site or account is not owned, operated or controlled by the practice or practitioner referred to in the comments”.

Similarly, the advertising guidelines that apply to regulated health practitioners like occupational therapists and physiotherapists in Australia state that:

“There are many opportunities for consumers or patients to express their views online that are not affected by the National Law restriction on testimonials in advertising. Patients can share views through their personal social media such as Facebook or Twitter accounts or on information sharing websites or other online mechanisms that do not involve using testimonials in advertising a regulated health service.

For example, consumer and patient information sharing websites that invite public feedback/reviews about experience of a regulated health practitioner, business and/or service are generally intended to help consumers make more informed decisions and are not considered advertising of a regulated health service.”

Although hard to forecast with certainty, it’s likely that managing online reviews will be an increasingly important part of business for speech pathologists in private practice.

What do we know about negative reviews?

We can learn from the experiences of business owners who’ve been dealing with online reviews for years: owners of restaurants and hotels. These businesses have had to deal with sometimes very harsh reviews on sites like Yelp, Urbanspoon/Zomato, Menulog, OpenTable, and TripAdvisor. A growing body of research exists about these reviews. It shows:

1. Online reviews matter. Online reviews: (a) can attract a wide audience (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004); (b) are perceived by consumers as credible and trustworthy (Flanagin & Metzger, 2013); and (c) play an important part in shaping client opinions and purchasing decisions (Sparks and Browning, 2010).

2. Online reviews can help improve the quality of services. In traditional management literature, customer complaints are often seen as positive because they give the business a chance to fix problems and improve services (e.g. Reynolds and Harris, 2005).

3. Reviews can also hurt you, your team, and your business. As noted above, negative reviews about your business can affect you, your reputation, your business, your employees and contractors; can affect your morale, health and finances; and may attract the attention of third parties, including government regulators and industry associations.

4. Consumers post negative reviews for lots of reasons and in different ways. Online reviews may be posted for personal, social and even commercial reasons. The trigger is usually a negative experience. The decision to post an online review depends on lots of factors, e.g. a client’s motivations, past experiences, general attitude to complaining, age, and familiarity with the Internet (e.g. Yagil, 2008). Posting reviews may provide an emotional release (e.g. to allay anger, embarrassment or disappointment, or even to provoke laughter), seek “revenge” for a perceived slight, or even the hope of economic gain (Cantallops and Salvi, 2014). Some may be heat-of-the-moment “rants”. Others may be fair descriptions of legitimate concerns. Some will be trivial. Others may allege civil wrongs (e.g. negligence) or even criminal acts. Some may be exaggerated. Others may be completely fabricated (e.g. by ex-employees with a gripe, or unethical competitors). Some are short. Others are encyclopedic. Some will be shared with one or two followers. Others may go viral. Some will be posted by named people you know. Others may be anonymous. Service quality is very much in the eye of the client, rather than the provider (e.g. Sparks, 2001).

5. Online reviews can be personal. They may name and single out individual staff (e.g. Bradley et al., 2015). They may even be discriminatory or defamatory.

So how can speech pathologists in private practice manage negative online reviews?

Again, we can learn from the experience of hospitality businesses. As with restaurants, most speech pathology private practices are small businesses with limited time and resources to dedicate to online review management. In this context, the research identifies four broad categories of strategies employed by businesses to manage negative reviews:

(A) Preventative strategies

Improve your services. In theory, improving the quality of your services will reduce problems, complaints and the risk of negative reviews.
Conduct “real time” checks on client satisfaction to identify and, if possible, fix small problems before they become big problems (e.g. Johnston and Fern, 1999).
Manage client expectations about your services.

These are sensible ideas. But, owing to the intangibility of services and the variability of client perceptions, expectations and preferences, preventative strategies are never going to eliminate the risk of negative reviews entirely (e.g. Sparks, 2001).

(B) Protective strategies

The emphasis of these strategies is to shape – not prevent – complaint behaviours to minimise damage to your business.

Give your clients clear encouragement and guidance as to where and how to comment and complain. This can be offered orally, via a leaflet, on your website, or an email. For example, I have a feedback and complaints policy I share with all clients.
Include a request in your feedback and complaints policy that complaints first be presented to staff or the practice directors before being posted online.
Have a physical and email suggestion box for anonymous comments and complaints.
Provide short in-house satisfaction questionnaires and reward clients for using these, rather than going online.
Monitor online reviews and respond:
- privately by email or, better yet, with a phone call or face-to-face open discussion; or
- publicly.

In the hospitality industry, public responses are increasingly viewed as a vital reputation management strategy. Review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor have even published guidelines on how to do it. These guidelines encourage restraint, courtesy, a focus on specific concerns and an emphasis on the business’ positive qualities.

Jay Baer, author of “Hug your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep your Customers” says that when you don’t answer a complaint it decreases customer advocacy by up to 60%: when you answer a complaint it increases advocacy by 25%. Customer advocacy – i.e. the client advocating for your service.

Complaint-handling studies (e.g. Davidow, 2003; Bitnet et al., 1990), show that effective public responses often include:

acknowledgement of the problem(s) raised;
an apology for the business’ contribution to it;
an explanation for its occurrence; and
a commitment to take appropriate preventative or remedial action.

Two important points on public responses for speech pathologists:

It can make sense, from a business perspective, to respond to negative reviews in a constructive way, acknowledging the client’s concerns (even if you don’t agree with them). However, it’s also important to support staff and others affected by the review, recognising that there are always at least two sides to any story (e.g. Jung & Yoon, 2014).
As noted above, speech pathologists must comply with their codes of ethics and legal obligations when responding publicly. This means, among other things, that speech pathologists cannot disclose any sensitive, health-related or personal information about clients or their care, which means we need to be very careful when responding in a public forum. I’ve given some thought on how best to do this.

Most review sites have moderation guidelines or terms of use that prohibit defamatory or offensive comments. For example, Whitecoat’s Moderation Guidelines and Care Navigator’s Terms of Service (see Sections 9 and 12). If you feel a review breaches those guidelines, you should alert the review site citing specific breaches and ask that the offending review be removed.

(C) Positive strategies

In hospitality, it’s common for businesses to actively encourage positive reviews from happy clients. Evidence shows that this tactic can help push negative reviews down the list and “off the page” and also result in a more balanced picture of the business (e.g. Sparks and Browning, 2011). It can also help build staff morale.

Unfortunately, actively encouraging positive reviews is not an option for speech pathologists in Australia. As with regulated health professionals, we’re not allowed to encourage testimonials or positive comments from clients for ethical reasons.

Speech pathologists can – and should – gather and share unsolicited positive feedback with staff to bolster morale. But we cannot encourage or take active steps to share this kind of feedback with the public as this would fall foul of our advertising rules.

(D) Palliative strategies

These emotion-focused strategies seek to counteract the negative emotions and stress caused by negative reviews. Examples of these strategies include things like:

building physical resilience – going for jogs, joining gyms, etc.;
enlisting support from colleagues, families and friends, including through professional networks and bodies (online and offline);
recognising that reviews are transient, surmountable, and often of limited consequence in themselves;
providing professional and emotional support to any staff affected by a review; and
stress management activities, e.g. yoga, meditation, etc.

Although simple and perhaps obvious, these strategies provide powerful ways to combat feelings of powerlessness and isolation, and to keep the real effects of negative reviews in perspective.

Bottom line

Online review sites are here to stay and can help members of the public to make informed choices about their healthcare. Online reviews can help speech pathologists to improve their services. But they can also inflict significant emotional and financial stress on owners and staff.

Preventative, protective, and palliative strategies, like those used in the hospitality industry, may help speech pathologists in private practice to manage negative online reviews and their effects. But we need to take care when responding publicly to ensure we act ethically and in accordance with our privacy and other legal obligations.

Principal source: Bradley, G.L., Sparks, B.A., Weber, K. (2015). The stress of anonymous online reviews: a conceptual model and research agenda. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(5), 739-755.

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5 steps I took to comply with Speech Pathology Australia’s advertising rules

20 March 2016 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

Unlike many of our fellow allied health professionals, speech pathologists aren’t registered health practitioners in Australia. If we want to be respected in the same way as physiotherapists and occupational therapists – and I think we do – we need to be at least as professional as the regulated health professions.

Regulated health practitioners, like OTs and physios, are subject to Codes of Conduct on various matters, including advertising.

The good news is that Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) has implemented its Code of Ethics-Advertising Policy (3.03), which in many ways brings speech pathology advertising rules into line with the standards applied to registered health professionals. Helpfully, SPA has also published some FAQs to explain some of the measures.

The bad news is that, since the rules came into force on 1 July 2015, we all have to do a bit of work to make sure we comply and stay compliant.

I completed my compliance audit after the introduction of the rules, and wanted to share some specific steps I took to comply with the rules.

1. Yank those testimonials

Why: testimonials are subjective, inherently anecdotal, easy to make up and to quote selectively, and hard to verify independently. They’re also manipulative: they’ve been shown to persuade people to buy stuff they don’t need. They’re a staple of self-improvement workshops and the home shopping channel for that very reason. They have no legitimate place marketing health services to vulnerable people with health needs – especially people with communication problems.

I have never used testimonials on my website or elsewhere. But I had allowed some clients and friends to rate me on Facebook. I had to delete those – which was a bit tricky – for some reason, I couldn’t delete the review function without losing my map on Facebook which was annoying to say the least. I have also now changed my website comments function so I get a chance to moderate comments before they are posted.

2. Ditch any “specialist” claims

Why? In Australia, the speech pathology profession doesn’t yet recognise any categories of specialist practitioners. In professions like medicine and law, you can become a specialist. But it takes lots of work and involves proving your expertise through a recognised accreditation process. Here’s what that looks like for lawyers in New South Wales, Australia.

Unless and until similar measures are introduced for speech pathologists, it’s misleading and deceptive to claim you are a specialist.

You can say you have lots of experience working with particular kinds of clients. You can say you have a special interest in helping people with specific speech pathology needs. But you’re not a specialist (e.g. you can’t call yourself a specialist paediatric speech pathologist).

I searched my blog and social media profile for anything that might suggest I claimed to be a specialist. When in doubt, I deleted the offending content.

3. Monitor what others say about you

This all sounds a bit paranoid. And I don’t really care that much about what people say about me.

But I don’t have a choice anymore. Why? I’ve got the ability to moderate and edit comments. I have a professional obligation to delete testimonials on platforms under my control. I have a legal obligation to avoid misleading and deceptive conduct – including false claims.

To mitigate my risk here, I now moderate all comments on my blog, and monitor social media comments and mentions daily (except Sundays). I now have a social media policy to cover staff conduct. I’ve also implemented house rules on my business Facebook page, which clearly set out my expectations of people interacting with the page (including the “no testimonials” rule). Finally, and as much as I hate vanity Googling, I’ve set up a Google name alert for my clinic and name to monitor comments made in places outside my control.

4. Tear up those discount vouchers, gift cards and coupons

Why? They encourage people to use your service, even if they don’t need it. And they’re tacky.

I don’t advertise with vouchers or gift cards – mainly because I think they come across as cheap and nasty, so I didn’t need to change my practice here. But I am going to think more about whether my future sponsorships of local events, e.g. school events that could be perceived as encouraging over-use of my service. I don’t think I have an issue – I tend to just hand over money in return for being listed in the list of sponsors, but it’s something I’ll review with each sponsorship arrangement.

5. Re-think the qualifications you cite when marketing services

B.Bus (Accounting), LLB (Hons.), MSLP, MSPA, CPSP, NP, MANZCN, Solicitor of the High Courts of Australia and Hong Kong…

My full qualifications are a bit of a mouthful and many of them have no direct relevance to speech pathology.

So I don’t use them all when I’m marketing speech pathology services. Instead, I go with SPA’s recommendation: David Kinnane, MSLP, MSPA, CPSP. Full stop.

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Turning Pro – Part 3 – 9 final tips to launch and run a professional speech pathology practice

8 July 2015 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

In a world that, increasingly, seems to reward wannabes, amateurs and charlatans, “Turning Pro” in any field of work is hard. Staying Pro is even harder.

In this, our third and final instalment, we give speech pathologists 9 more tips to do just that.

Here are Parts 1 and 2 to check out.

On with the tips!

21. The professional is courageous.

One of our most important roles as speech pathologists is to advocate for the needs of our clients. Sometimes, this means we need to ruffle feathers. To fight bureaucratic madness. To squeeze blood from stones. To say things that are unpopular. To challenge that status quo – even within the profession.

As humans, we’re programmed to care about others’ opinions. But if you worry too much about what others think, you’ll never be a professional. Some of my legal colleagues thought I was having a mid-life crisis when I retrained as a speech pathologist and opened my clinic. Perhaps they were right. But thank goodness I found the wherewithal to just do it. Who wants to die wondering?

22. The professional will not be distracted.

It’s easy to lose sight of your purpose and get buried in trivia, red tape and nonsense. One of my favourite words is focus. John Lee Dumas taught me a terrific acronym for FOCUS: Follow One Course Until Success.

In addition to my no news, no social media policy, I use Asana and Timely to keep me focused on the two to three key things I want to achieve each day for my clinic. Anything not on that list or related to my daily therapy deliverables waits until the main tasks are done.

23. The professional is ruthless with herself.

Tasks tend to take up as much time as you give them. Once your basic systems are up and running and you’ve been at it for a while, complacency can set in and you can find yourself drifting toward disaster.

At the start of each quarter, I sit down with my operations manager and set 2 to 3 “stretch goals” I’d like to achieve if “time permits” – goals and projects I really care about that I won’t let myself chase unless I’ve done everything else I need to do first. This pushes me to use my time more efficiently.

Speechies in Business started as a stretch projects. I also have a short list of online training courses to do whenever I have an unexpected break. So, if I have an FTA, I don’t give myself an hour off for coffee and chit chat. Instead, I attack a project I’m passionate about or learn something to help my clients.

24. The professional has compassion for herself.

Working closely with people – particularly kids, in Winter – means we get exposed to all kinds of bugs. Sometimes, even with a rigorous Infection Control Policy, a balanced diet, regular exercise and enough sleep, we fall ill.

When I’m sick, I give into it quickly, reschedule appointments, go home, go to bed and focus on getting better. A lingering sniffle, hoarse voice and hyponasal resonance is not a good look for a speech pathologist. I can operate competently with 50% power. But my clients deserve better than that.

25. The professional lives in the present.

Regrets about the past and anxiety about the future can seriously undermine your confidence and professionalism. Without wanting to sound too New Agey about it, having a clear idea of what you are seeking to achieve and then doing the work immediately in front of you to the best of your abilities is a great way to combat regret and anxiety. I find taking 20 minutes a day, twice a day to meditate helps me to focus on the present, too.

26. The professional defers gratification.

Yes, I need to eat and have somewhere to live. But I don’t need the biggest house, the newest car, the latest fashions (ha, far from it!) or the latest gizmos.

In my previous life, I always “had to have” the latest phone, the best stereo, meals at Michelin-rated restaurants, and the fancy holiday to the Maldives. In my new life, I leave as much money as I can in the business so I can grow it, listen to streamed music on a hand-me-down iPod, take regular short road trips with the family in our station wagon, and dine out at sports-clubs. While we’re not keeping up with all the Joneses (or Smiths or Lams for that matter), we still have a great quality of life.

27. The professional does not wait for inspiration.

This is a big one for me. Sometimes – usually it’s a Tuesday – I walk into the clinic feeling as flat as a stomped-upon tack. I look at the mountain of reports I have to write, all the sessions I have to plan and deliver that week, the blog articles I’ve committed to research and to write, and nearly despair. Then I have a coffee, review my key tasks for the day, look at my stretch goals (the cool stuff I get to do if I finish my daily tasks on time), do a couple of star jumps, turn on my task timer, and jump into it.

Don’t wait for inspiration to strike. Often, I have my best business and clinical ideas while I’m working on something hard or boring (or both).

28. The professional does not give away her powers to others.

For me, this is about not judging myself against the success and achievements of others. I don’t have the largest clinic in my area, or see the most clients a day. I work hard and am certainly not making millions!

But, I:

run my own show;
see my kids every day;
spend my working hours helping people to improve their communication skills to participate more fully in life;
choose my own hours;
get to educate and advocate for others, e.g. by speaking at schools and community events;
receive regular thanks from people all over the world about the quality of the free information on my website;
am having my free Lidcombe Program activity book translated into other languages to help children who stutter around the world;
get to contribute to local community events and causes I’m passionate about;
learn new things – about client needs, clinical practice and myself – every day; and
get to help other speech pathologists in private practice benefit from my business and legal experience with low-cost templates, scripts and resources and web-content writing services through Speechies in Business.

What a privileged and lucky life I lead!

29. The professional helps others.

This, to me, is why most speech pathologists in private practice are naturally professional. Speech pathology is all about serving others: helping other people to achieve their goals. We work face-to-face with people in need every day. And, at least in my experience, speech pathologists are incredibly generous with their time and expertise in mentoring and supporting other speech pathologists.

The support and training I have received from other speech pathologists – often free of charge – is what inspired me to want to give back to the profession through Speechies in Business.

Final thoughts on Turning Pro

This series of posts has been fun to write, but challenging to execute in practice. We hope you’ve found them useful or inspiring (hopefully both)!

Ultimately, we are responsible for our own professional conduct and reputations. To be professional, we need a firm commitment to evidence-based service and ethical conduct. But we also need to treat ourselves more like we treat our clients. We need to feel more compassion for ourselves. We need to stop asking others for permission to launch and build the private practices of our dreams and to create and deliver the services our clients need.

Main source: Steven Pressfield (2012). Turning Pro: Tap into your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work. Black Irish Books, NY, NY. Well worth a read. You can get it here.

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29 tips to Turn Pro and improve your private practice – Part 2

15 June 2015 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

So, having implemented each of the professional private practice habits discussed in Part 1, it’s now time to step it up a gear!

So here are nine more habits to improve the professionalism of your private practice. Again, these are based on Steven Pressfield‘s excellent tome, with practical examples of what I have done to acquire them in my own private practice:

12. The professional does not show off.

Remember that kid at school who did well in exams but always claimed she didn’t study? No-one likes (or believes) that kid!

Despite what Facebook suggests, being a professional isn’t about telling the world how wonderful you are and broadcasting every success with an inspirational quote. It’s about being honest. Doing what you say you will do. Admitting what you don’t know. And owning up to the fact that keeping your head above water takes lots of hard work, often attending to thankless compliance tasks, over a long period of time.

Opening my clinic wasn’t the effortless, well-orchestrated product of a genius mind in a state of mindful bliss. It was the sometimes chaotic product of a caffeine-stimulated mania bordering at times on obsession, with lots of late nights and weekends beavering away on a project many thought was doomed to failure. If I hadn’t “studied” – my target clients, my business model, my own strengths and limitations – there is no way I could have opened my doors, much less kept them open. It would be misleading to others looking to open a private practice to pretend otherwise. Sharing failures and lessons learned is at least as important as celebrating success. And more human too.

13. The professional dedicates herself to mastering technique.

I invest thousands of dollars a year in training, even at the expense of paying myself a wage. And I spend countless hours a year reflecting on clinical limitations and planning how best to combat and overcome them.

The moment you think you know everything is the moment you are most likely to make a catastrophic error in treatment or business (or both). Treat your profession as a master-craft rooted in science. Invest in continuous quality improvement. Never get complacent.

14. The professional does not hesitate to ask for help.

Some people collect cars. Others, novelty plush toys. I collect mentors.

I’m a bit like that insufferable baby bird in the children’s classic “Are You My Mother?”

“Will You Be My Mentor?

We all stand on the shoulders of giants. I have a mentor for pediatric issues, a mentor for adults and a mentor for business issues. I have a mentor with 35 years experience, and another who started out with me. I have a mentor in private practice, and another in community health. Being professional is knowing your scope of competent practice, when to refer on, when you need a reality check, and when you need urgent back up. Asking for help to meet your client’s health needs is a sign of strength, not weakness.

15. The professional does not take success or failure personally.

Despite all the practice I’ve had over the years, I’m still not good at losing with grace or dignity.

We all celebrate our triumphs and curse our set backs – that’s human nature. But we we can’t always control what happens. All we can control is our approach and our actions – not the consequences of our actions (good or bad). Our attitude to being professional, and the actions we take each day to pursue our goals and help our clients, is the true measure of our success. The countless tragedies – large and small – endured by millions around the world every day shows that our ultimate success or failure in business and life is not fully ours to decide (despite what some self-help books proclaim).

16. The professional does not identify with his or her instrument.

We are not merely the sum total of our gifts and weaknesses. We need to know our strengths and limitations before we set out to pursue our life’s work. But we shouldn’t confuse a talent we were born with, with what matters – being a good person and using our skills to do our work professionally.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been good with words. But, for almost two decades, I did little with this talent but draft legal documents and give advice to big companies. I was good at it, and comfortable. But it wasn’t enough. So I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. Retrained. Wrote a novel for young adults in my spare time. Penned speeches for a social justice charity. Wrote something meaningful and of service every day. Eventually, I launched my clinic’s weekly blog to inform families about important communication issues and research. But, regrets? I have more than a few! I could have done so much more if I’d started 15 or even 5 years earlier. It’s a mistake I won’t make again with Speechies in Business.

17. The professional endures adversity.

Computers crash. People you trust let you down. Competitors move in to your “territory”. Backs give in. Regulations change. You can’t insure against every risk and potentially bad event.

There were a number of times early on when I was tempted to throw in the towel and go back to a safe, well-paying job. But I knew, deep down, I would come to hate the job. Even worse, I knew I would come to hate myself for taking it.

Sometimes being professional means just hanging in there – getting through one more week or even day before admitting defeat and pivoting your business strategy. Other times, it means accepting you’ve made a mistake, swallowing your pride and ceasing to dig that hole you’ve made for yourself. Only the (smug) god of hindsight can tell you whether you’ve made the right decision in a particular case. But you shouldn’t give up on your dream, even if it gets a little soiled by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Too many people give up right on the brink of success. Hang tough!

18. The professional self-validates.

It’s hard to ignore the opinion of others; and you should always seek feedback from clients. But what you think of your practice is just as important. Even if the client is happy, have you done a great job to the best of your abilities? The professional answers this question objectively. If the answer is “no”, the professional redoubles his or her efforts and comes back the next day and does better.

Sometimes, we all need a demanding client to bring our A-game. Sometimes, that demanding client needs to be us.

19. The professional reinvents herself.

Don’t be a one-trick pony. Don’t lock yourself in a “specialist” box, seeing only one sub-type of client day in, day out. Although you will think you are developing depth of expertise “one inch wide, and one mile deep”, you will be blind to developments in other areas of practice that may revolutionise your “core practice”. Don’t forget: many children with communication difficulties grow up into adults with communication difficulties; adults with communication problems were all once children; and most of our clients have more than one communication need.

One of the main reasons I chose to work with both children and adults is the amount I learn working with one group that can be transferred or applied to the other. This has allowed me to develop skills in all sorts of areas in which I never intended to practice.

20. The professional is recognised by other professionals.

This isn’t about anything as superficial as following, friending and linking in speech pathologists and other professionals on social media. Nor is it about handing out cards at conferences and networking events. Instead, it’s about doing good work and being recognised for being a true professional by people who have first-hand knowledge of your practice, work product and treatment outcomes.

One of the key ways I do this in practice is to produce quality assessment reports. Although they take much longer to write than “cookie-cutter” or fill-in-the-box reports, the decision to do them has been vindicated by positive client feedback and by the number of new clients referred to me by existing clients and health and education professionals on the basis of my assessment process and reports.

So, we’re on the home straight. Just nine more professional habits to go, with practical tips to acquire them.

We hope this instalment has given you a good idea or two to plan (or improve) your practice. Join us again soon for Part 3 of 3. And, as always, feel free to leave your comments below!

Main source: Steven Pressfield (2012). Turning Pro: Tap into your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work. Black Irish Books, NY, NY.

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29 tips to Turn Pro and improve your private practice – Part 1

1 June 2015 By David Kinnane Leave a Comment

To succeed in private practice, we know that we need to be professional. But what does this actually mean?

Ethical? Of course. But being ethical isn’t enough to keep you in business for long.

Steven Pressfield has published a small book that packs a big punch: “Turning Pro”. He says that turning pro is a decision: “We finally listen to that still, silly voice in our heads…We find the courage to identify the secret dream or love or bliss that we’ve know all along was our passion, our calling, our destiny”.

That all sounds good in theory – who doesn’t want to live their passion? But how do we do it in practice?

Of the 29 professional habits I learned from reading Pressfield’s book, here are the first 11, with examples of how I’ve implemented or applied them in my speech pathology clinic:

1. The professional shows up every day.

First thing every morning, with all my sessions planned and ready to go for the day, I spend 5 minutes per client filling in his or her home exercises sheet, reflecting on goals, and thinking about what I can do to improve each session. It reminds me why I’m at work and that speech pathology is about helping people with specific needs, not “processing clients”.

2. The professional stays on the job all day.

I’ve always done the work. But sometimes it seems to take me forever. But over the last few weeks I’ve instituted a new practice. From 8am to 5pm, net surfing, newspaper reading, social media scrolling, chit chat and – especially – complaining, are all banned. I’m amazed how much more focused I’ve been and and how much more I’ve achieved within standard business hours. This has allowed me to finish on time more often and spend more time with my family.

3. The professional is committed over the long haul.

When I started my clinic, I introduced myself to local teachers and doctors. But I didn’t waste time and energy on an expensive or pushy marketing campaign. Instead, I built my business up slowly through word of mouth, recognising that speech pathology was my career – not a short term gig or hobby – and that my reputation is bound up in my practice.

4. For the professional, the stakes are high and real.

Early on, I was tempted to take on contracting and consulting jobs related to my former legal career to subsidise my clinic earnings. But I resisted. Having no safety net (especially with kids and a mortgage) is a terrific motivator to do great work for clients and establish your practice.

5. The professional is patient.

Patience is not my virtue! I’m a bit of a control freak and get frustrated when I have to rely on others or wait. I’m getting better (slowly). For example, my start up checklist helped me keep an eye on the big picture, and not sweat the small stuff, like waiting for registrations to come through.

6. The professional seeks order.

Sometimes it’s fun to ride by the seat of your pants. But it’s exhausting wasting energy putting out fires or reinventing wheels. Speechies in Business is all about systems, routines and processes to automate as much mindless stuff as possible so we can focus on front line care for our clients.

7. The professional demystifies.

I can’t stand it when professionals of any kind hide behind jargon or hoard their “secret information” behind pay-walls. I’m a big fan of transparency and Plain English. On my clinic blog, I publish a free article once a week – rain, hail or shine – about speech, language, voice, fluency and other communication issues relevant to clients, prospective clients and the general public. Here’s an example about how to help children learn new words and another about Auditory Processing Disorder.

8. The professional acts in the face of fear.

We all get scared. Professionals feel the fear and do it anyway. One of my mantras is to welcome new opportunities – especially the scary ones. When I opened my doors, saw my first client solo, gave my first community talk, lectured at a local University, and expanded my scope of practice, I was worried: my reputation was on the line. But I wouldn’t be where I was today without having done them.

9. The professional accepts no excuses.

Sometimes, we all have off sessions, forget to return messages or miss deadlines. When I make mistakes, I own up to them and apologise in person. Quality client care means being accountable and asking for continuous client feedback. My Complaints Policy encourages honest feedback and has helped a lot, generating loads of useful suggestions I’ve been able to incorporate into my practice to reduce errors.

10. The professional plays it as it lays.

I get sick. Equipment fails. Without warning, clients sometimes don’t show up. Over the years, I’ve learned to be more accepting of bumps in the road. I’ve recognised that private practice has its peaks and troughs; swings and roundabouts. Getting angry or frustrated with things beyond your control doesn’t change reality – but a good attitude can. Recently, I’ve been reading the Stoics, which has really helped. (More on that to come.)

11. The professional is prepared.

I have a simple rule of practice: I don’t go home unless my sessions for the next day are all planned, with materials ready to go. Recently, this rule served me well when my clinic had a 5 hour blackout on a busy day. It sometimes means late nights. But it’s a big motivator to ensure I don’t let myself get overbooked or behind in session-planning. I love going home to my family after a solid day’s work.

So, there you have it. 11 professional habits, with practical tips to acquire them. We hope one or more of them helps improve your practice.

Join us again for Part 2 and Part 3. And feel free to leave comments below!

Main source: Steven Pressfield (2012). Turning Pro: Tap into your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work. Black Irish Books, NY, NY. Well worth a read. You can get it here.

Image: https://bit.ly/1HGvKNr